The Music Thread.

[chairdriver]

Chairdriver's Best Of 2009

 

 

10. Temecula Sunrise - Dirty Projectors

 

So much happens in this song. The guitar creates a sound-scape which I long to habitate and explore. I love how Dirty Projectors have 4 vocalists, because it please my ever-hungry ear that loves multi-stranded vocals. I could have chosen anything from Bitte Orca to fill this space, since they're all so good, but this one gives me the most lovely tingle.

 

 

 

 

9. Junkyard Heart - Juliette Lewis

 

This song has a weak start, which prevents it from being further up the list, which is really a shame, but such is the way with Juliette Lewis, who continues to be hit-and-miss. However, the ending just blows me. So hard. It's a maelstrom of sound, wrecking havoc everywhere it cascades. I'm in the quicksand, fearing the final lyric "You've sealed my fate my friend.", because she's so big.

 

 

 

 

 

8. French Navy - Camera Obscura

 

This song fills me with glee. I am in a musical when I'm listening to it. Should be a gay anthem, but no, because it's such a great song, so wouldn't actually qualify. The best thing anyone from Scotland has done in ages.

 

 

 

 

7. Aeon - Antony & The Johnsons

 

This song is so powerful. When Antony sings it, he transforms from the frail child he hides as to an empowered being that knows where they are, and where they've come from; it's this song that cements Antony Heggarty, in my opinion, as the most important queer icon and role-model in all of music.

 

Just so great.

 

"Oh Aeon, hold my father, because without him I would not exist."

 

 

 

 

6. Siren Song - Bat For Lashes

 

I cried when I heard this live. And since then it's meant so much. It draws out the lover in me, only to kill it when I realise I'm so unloved romantically.

 

"I'll always be happy to kiss you. Promise I'll never be sad."

 

"Tell every boy that you're my man, I'll try not to let you down."

 

Natasha Khan reaches so high a height. She stands on the shoulders of giants, let's all admit (those wuthering heights have before been reached), but she's just so tall. The rest of Two Suns is probably more great in others' opinions, and the production of the album possibly kills it dead, but this song has such an effect on me emotionally - the signpost of great music.

 

 

 

 

 

5. Dog Days Are Over - Florence + The Machine

 

I've listened to Lungs so much. Too much. I know every nook, every cranny, every cul-de-sac of every song. I can hear where the production falls down (I'm looking at you Rabbit Heart). Having not listened to it in a while, I come back to it, and the song that still stands up after the erosion of time is the most obvious, Dog Days Are Over.

 

I would think it a great song if it ended after the first section. I know it will come back for more, so I reserve my judgement. Then I'm clapping when the second section closes, ready to move to the next song on my playlist, but when she comes back for more, I'm drenched in the murky palus waters the song was draughted from. The mere thought of the section where she sings over herself...

 

 

 

4. Lumpy Dough - Fight Like Apes

 

Don't judge a book by it's cover; don't judge a song by its title. This is the most serious music that FLApes have put out, it has a deeper understanding that their other songs lack.

 

What genre is this song? A genuine question. I try to describe this song to those that have a musical life, and all I can say is that its so essential. Listen to the finale at your own peril.

 

 

 

 

3. Quicksand - La Roux

 

"Your touch intensifies and I'm in the quicksand."

 

This is the most golden-laced thing I have ever heard. I don't understand how La Roux wows me, considering I grew up on pop, but she does. 2009 has been the renaissance (or perhaps just naissance, minus the re) of fantastic pop music. This time last year or two years ago I'd never rank someone so mainstream so highly, but I cannot ignore the fact that this song hurls me into the quicksand, where sand floods into my cracked wounds, and no matter how much I grab at the rope, I cannot pull myself out.

 

 

 

 

2. Paperback Head - Tegan and Sara

 

Having been in a crowd of more than 1000 people all singing along word-for-word to this song, I came to the stark realisation that it so obviously ranks in Tegan and Sara's top 10, where before the concert I didn't really have time for it. The harmonisation is sublime.

 

God bless any force that stands against Tegan and Sara, because combined they are so strong.

 

 

 

 

1. Bad Romance - Lady Gaga

 

"Some women are born great. Some women become great. Like Lady Gaga."

 

I almost feel rude listing this. I hated everything about Lady Gaga a few months ago (apart from the pink jacket at the start of Just Dance, which is the best thing I've ever seen in my life). I hate Poker Face, I hate The Fame in general (Paparazzi tells me things, but I'm too bored to listen). I hated how she appeared to be an attention whore when she first broke. I hate how she usurped existing stunners. But now I can look past all that with the release of Bad Romance, the most impacting song of 2009.

 

The first time I heard it, whilst in a club, I was like "Wait, what is this song thats in the process of stunning me?"; I felt like I could have been a lolcat like "lulz, wat?". And to hear it in a club is the greatest thing. That's where it reigns supreme. It is the monarch of any club where its acceptable to crawl along the floor crying, which is what the bridge commands you to do.

 

It's just brilliantly written. By the end of the bridge, when you're still reeling from the "I DON'T WANNA BE FRIENDS." and when it breaks into the final chorus you realise that the song is so fucking fantastic.

 

And then the video. The fucking video. Literally adds too much.

 

 

 

Lady Gaga. There's a reason you now have your own sub-forum on Tori Amos' @forumz. You've fucking been promoted to lieutenant.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2009 by chairdriver

[Ashley]

I still don't feel the love for Bad Romance. Its gargling and electro-badly-pronounced-French.

 

I loved what Jo Brand (I think it was her) said about Lady GaGa; "she's like one of those small girls that notices nobody is paying attention so she pulls her skirt up over her head."

[Paj!]

I like Bad Romance, but it wouldn't be my no.1. (Or on my top 10)

 

COME ON JUNKYARD HEART!

[chairdriver]

COME ON JUNKYARD HEART!

 

 

You blew my mind, you blew my mind when you left me without anything.

 

You've sealed your fate my friend.

Edited December 23, 2009 by Ashley
we wouldn't allow that in the hot people thread

[dan-likes-trees]

Chairdriver's Best Of 2009

 

Great post, great picks, I love.

So much that I'll totally rip off your post by doing my own!

Year end lists ftw. NE could well make a decent music blog.

 

Dan-likes-trees picks of the year

 

10 - Jealous of Roses - Bibio

 

I love how diverse his album is, folky guitar with influences from all over... Jealous of the Roses is bizarrely and wonderfully funky, delicious bassline to suit.

 

(Not on Spotify)

9 -Surf Solar - Fuck Buttons

 

Because it’s so sprawling, relentless, epic, and other such synonyms

 

(Not on Spotify)

 

8 - That Golden Rule - Biffy Clyro

 

I Got a broken heart and I'll do it again!

 

So much rage, so much intensity, so much better than anything from Puzzles. Triumphant return to form.

 

http://open.spotify.com/track/2PIdFwwTFXBq5SwpNpn6oE"

7 - You've Got the Love - Florence + the Machine - Jamie XX rework

 

http://open.spotify.com/track/38XxK6eGxZf1sHEolRVFM7

 

Combo of two of my musical loves of the year, the near perfect pop of Florence combined with the minimal sound of the XX. Jamie harmonizes beautifully underneath Florence to create something quite spectacular.

6 - Counterpoint - Delphic

 

Multitudes of synths oscillate, spin, whirl, masterfully.Tell me nothing's wrong, nothings wrong today? Listening to this song, they might be right. /bad pun

 

http://open.spotify.com/track/0mlTmB0swdZamGlC9xoFJM

5 - Velvet - Big Pink

 

These arms of mine, don't mind who they hold

 

Shame the album was patchy because Velvet is terrific, and so much better than the successful-ish Dominoes. Elements of shoegaze undercut with electronic rhythm samples, over all of which Robbie Furze's vocals, filled with yearning and passion, rise above.

 

http://open.spotify.com/track/7mPzFjOG0jiHr4itGsG1ZU

 

4 - Lisztomania - Phoenix

 

Possibly the most joyously chirpy track of the year, the vocals are delicious (must be his accent), and the melody ridiculously infectious, filled with sing-me-sing-me lyrics.

 

http://open.spotify.com/track/3EXCJvehlOGEP9ntHaEMAg

 

3 - Useful Chambers - Dirty Projektors

 

Perhaps their most accessable song, and also perhaps their best. Dainty guitar riffs and harmoisation tease at something great for the opening minutes, and then suddenly everything implodes in the closing minute, as the band let loose and yell Bitte Orca! Orca Bitte!! Bitte Orca! ORCA BITTE!

http://open.spotify.com/track/7HMaDDBvEz73Ha9p0blzx3

 

2 - Two - Antlers

 

Something in my throat made my next words shake,

and something in the wires made the lightbulbs break.

There was glass inside my feet and raining down from the ceiling,

it opened up the scars that had just finished healing.

 

Whilst the tracks off Hospice work best in the context of the album itself, Two is arguably the highlight for me. On first listen it sounds almost like a more claustrophobic Bon Iver, nice enough. Then after multiple listens the lyrics start to come through, at times poetic, at times devastating, and constantly completely beautiful.

 

http://open.spotify.com/track/3XjhVyOmumNu3uY5DrB6cj

1 - Hooting and Howling - Wild Beasts

We're just brutes bored in our bovver boots.

We're just brutes clowning 'round in cahoots.

We're just brutes looking for shops to loot.

We're just brutes hoping to have a hoot

 

Is there a more perfectly literal band name than Wild Beasts? Stunningly restrained, understated arrangements of piano, bass and guitar form the basis of the track, leaving space for Hayden Thorpe's vocals to breathe and flourish. And flourish they do, swooping and diving, trembling and growling, hooting and howling, in an almost animalistic style. Sublime.

 

http://open.spotify.com/track/0VyHkEouiX2dGIELk6AOUo

 

 

Just missed - Passion Pit, Animal Collective, BFL, HEALTH, JJ, Miike Snow, Bloc Party

[Ashley]

Scrolling through and I saw the red text and presumed it was The Bard. How disappointing

 

[Paj!]

I was wondering why I was so dissatsified with all the music I was shuffling on iTunes, tyhen realised it was all too un-wintery. So I revisited Cat Power, one of my favourite artists/bands, but one I can only listen to when the air is biting and the snow on the ground blue from the evening sky.

The best.

 

It just conjures up this;

 

Begging to be carried home, wrapped in nary but a bearskin cloak.

 

 

I'm blown.

[chairdriver]

[dan-likes-trees]

Scrolling through and I saw the red text and presumed it was The Bard. How disappointing

 

 

Thanks bro

 

 

Moon Pix is basically utterly brilliant. Better than The Greatest. Thank you for this.

[Paj!]

The Greatest is her worst album along with Jukebox, imo. Just really im-personal compared to the others. The Greatest is still decent though.

 

---

 

ASHLEY!

 

Fun. have a free to download live session on Daytrotter.com. You have to sign up but it's free and there's loads of good bands doing sessions on there.

[Ashley]

---

 

ASHLEY!

 

Fun. have a free to download live session on Daytrotter.com. You have to sign up but it's free and there's loads of good bands doing sessions on there.

 

Aww bless. As if I'm not subscribed to their email, follow them on Twitter and facebook. Thanks for the thought though ^_^

[Paj!]

Aww bless. As if I'm not subscribed to their email, follow them on Twitter and facebook. Thanks for the thought though ^_^

 

You're filth.

 

To be fair, Tori Amos did a session without mentioning it on her twitter, facebook or her webpage, so I assumed.

 

--

 

Marina & The Diamonds are my best band.

[Ashley]

You're filth.

 

To be fair, Tori Amos did a session without mentioning it on her twitter, facebook or her webpage, so I assumed.

 

Well then she fails at modern ageness!

 

--

 

Marina & The Diamonds are Razz's best band.

 

Fixed for you ^_^

[Paj!]

Really needless.

[Ashley]

So's Dan Dare's penis.

 

T'was good natured humour. Afterall, unless you're a lucrative music exec on the sly you don't own them. Or kudos if you do

 

Need to check them out. Razz told me to ages ago and...I didn't.

[chairdriver]

Sweet Dreams by Beyonce, as you've never heard it before.

 

 

She's just incredible.

[Slaggis]

I'm so annoyed that I can't get that "Watcha Say" song out my head. I began insulting it, and then 20 minutes later I was singing the chorus. (I'm aware it's a sample, and I've heard the original before anyone asks).

 

And that Starstruck (3Oh!3 Feat. Katy Perry) song. Horrendous/ly catchy.

 

Oh, and Jamelia's "Beware Of The Dog". I'd never heard it, so consequently I'm utterly in love with it.

Edited December 24, 2009 by Slaggis

[Paj!]

The only good thing about Jason Derulo's song is that (presumably) Imogen Heap is getting money from it.

[Ashley]

My friend updated her status with some lyrics from that song and I said "sounds familiar, Imogen Heap isn't it?" "no" "oh what is it?" "Jason Derulo" *googles* "Jason Derulo FEATURING Imogen Heap." Kids these days.

 

Can't stop listening to this

 

[Paj!]

^ My favourite thing!

 

Could be Boards of Canada's new single. Well, not really. But strikes in the same direction.

[chairdriver]

Making a mixtape CD for my Dad, and his iPod he got for Christmas. I'm going to make a booklet with a page describing each song/artist, to go with it. So far I have:

 

Long Snake Moan - PJ Harvey

Metal Heart - Garbage

Cornflake Girl - Tori Amos

Daniel - Bat For Lashes

Next Messiah - Jenny Lewis

Quicksand - La Roux

Hoppipolla - Sigur Ros

My Heartbeat - Annie

Spiderwebs - No Doubt

Back In Your Head (RAC Mix) - Tegan and Sara

My Girls - Animal Collective

 

 

Bear in mind he's very "if it doesn't sound immediately/instantly good, it's not good". I can tell he will hate My Girls, but I'm going to say how it's considered one of the best songs of 2009, and is good if you understand how lovely it is.

 

At the moment I feel something is wrong / missing with the CD. The only essential song feels like Next Messiah - probably because I'm compromised my choices somewhat (I was going to choose a different B4L song, but remembered Daniel stunned on first listen, and is most obviously good, despite me being so bored of it now).

 

Any suggestions?

 

---------

 

On the subject, Jenny Lewis is actually so good. Her 2009 album Acid Tongue is so solid. Really accessible too.

 

Next Messiah:

[Molly]

Dad music? Fleetwood Mac, The Chain.

[chairdriver]

Dad music? Fleetwood Mac, The Chain.

 

My favourite song.

[Molly]

It does have one of the best riffs of all time.

[Dan_Dare]

Dad music? Fleetwood Mac, The Chain.

 

I think I love you a bit.

 

 

So, hey. Not posted here lately.

 

I got my brother The XX- The XX for Christmas. Blasting it through the 'main' Hi-Fi in the front room (instead of Spotify) transformed it from a great album to the single most intense emotional and sensual sound of the year. An argument unto itself for the continued purchase of Actual Records from Actual Shops. Album of 09 contender.